Wifi Adaptor needed for HTPC

[xj-boonie]

I just moved and my new house doesn't have any cat5 run. I'd like to get my Home Theatre PC running right away (I might run cat5 later but lots of unpacking first). I've got a Linksys E4200 router. What would be the best wireless adaptor for the HTPC - mostly streaming Amazon/Netflix and to an iPad? And is USB or PCI or PCIe better (all are available). The HTPC is in a media type case in a wood entertainment center.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[tipstir]

I just moved and my new house doesn't have any cat5 run. I'd like to get my Home Theatre PC running right away (I might run cat5 later but lots of unpacking first). I've got a Linksys E4200 router. What would be the best wireless adaptor for the HTPC - mostly streaming Amazon/Netflix and to an iPad? And is USB or PCI or PCIe better (all are available). The HTPC is in a media type case in a wood entertainment center.

Thanks!
Mike

CISCO Linksys adapter below..
AE2500
AE3000*
* Select-able Dual-Band with 3 X 3 for 450 Mbps

 

[sfx2000]

TrendNet TEW-680MB - highly rated here and recommended for HTPC's - Much faster than USB adapters - and it's three stream, so it can leverage your E4200 performance on 5GHz (if you're in range that is), even at 2.4Ghz, it will perform better than USB

Buffalo WLI-TX4-AG300N - I have first hand experience with this device, and it performs quite well once set up - it's also a dual band, but 2 stream only, but very good radio performance.

Linksys has a couple of bridges, but in my testing, they've had issues with packet rewriting corrupting checksums, and Linksys has not fixed it.

 

[tipstir]

I wouldn't recommend TrendNet TEW-680MB or any model version to nobody..They overheat and the go duff in connections. Best to stick with USB Stick, they too can overheat best to use those in the front ports or those on the MOBO (USB) for direct connection.

 

[xj-boonie]

no PCIe suggestions? Don't those run cooler?

 

[stevech]

I'd go with USB or Ethernet (a WiFi bridge) before PCIe. The antennas for PCIe are disadvantaged.

 

[xj-boonie]

I'd go with USB or Ethernet (a WiFi bridge) before PCIe. The antennas for PCIe are disadvantaged.

How so? I would have thought they would be better than a USB adaptor that has an internal antenna.

Thanks

 

[tipstir]

How so? I would have thought they would be better than a USB adaptor that has an internal antenna.

Thanks

PCI-E bus is quick but you loose some buffering on cheaper cards. Intel is better.

 

[stevech]

How so? I would have thought they would be better than a USB adaptor that has an internal antenna.

Thanks

Often the PCIe card has antennas on the card, buried down behind furniture, low in the room, etc. Or has coax to desktop antennas... lossy coax.

Ethernet bridge is the best way to go. Connect to ethernet port of PC. Place the bridge device optimally, e.g., on top of bookcase, etc.
With a good USB dongle and a USB extension cable, I doubt you'll see a huge difference vs. the bridge.

(engineering: USB internal antenna might be 0 or -3dBi gain. Bridge might be +3 dBi gain antenna). The path loss from room to room is many 10's of dB, e.g., 60dB. So a few dB difference in antenna gain matters little. Now, a bridge with a 9 or 12dBi gain antenna is starting to make a difference, like
http://www.l-com.com/familylist.aspx?id=2149
).

 

[sfx2000]

Stay away from the Linksys WiFi-Ethernet bridges - I've had issues with checksum rewriting, and that causes connectivity issues with UDP...

The Buffalo WLI-TX4-AG300N WiFi-Ethernet adapter - first hand experience is that is works quite well.

The Buffalo has a 5.5DBi gain internal antenna - and it's omni at that... the N2480 is what I used in my home gateway designs for the WiFi portion...

http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/File:Buffalo_WLI-TX4-AG300N_FCC_g.png

http://www.airgain.com/maxbeam-N2480

Tim has reviewed the Trendnet WiFi-Ethernet bridges here, and the results were quite good...